Idolising Children?

The surprise of the New Year was to find out I was being quoted in the New York Times.

That be said, it was one line. But, hey, it was a mention in the New York Times.

The article from Brian Stelter gives a reasonable overview of the argument. I feel he left me a little short though. The full quote from which my quote was taken was:

Adults may think it is respectful to let children make their own decisions, but it isn’t. Especially at a young age children don’t have enough experience or knowledge to make a wide range of decisions. Respect is supporting children’s development, guiding their decision-making and giving them the capacity to understand that you can’t do everything.

But, with a National Press Club in Washington, an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and David Letterman’s The Late Show and the announcement by the Australian Government that Bindi with be a “tourism ambassador” for Australia we have an eight-year-old girl whose father has recently died, whose mother is still grieving, keeping the schedule of an A-grade celebrity. And, not one person is standing up and saying, “Is this appropriate?”

At the time my issue was, and still is, the idea that respecting children means letting them make all of their own decisions. This simply isn’t the case. Children need to have their development supported and this means in the case of children engaged in public life they need to be supported to enjoy what they are doing, but also adults need to make decisions when enough is enough.